During my trip to Bali last week where I met up with several successful internet marketers, we were discussing several article marketing techniques on how to create an article, the keyword research and the marketing of your article.

My expertise is in [tag-tec]article marketing[/tag-tec] so I offered plenty of tips to help everyone. But it is impossible to know everything. I got some valuable tips from other [tag-tec]internet marketers[/tag-tec] when talking and one of them is “a missing step in Resource Box”.

I have to be honest, I forgot the internet marketer who gave me this tip so I don’t think I’ll mention his name incase I give the wrong credit. If I do find out later on, I’ll update this post.

A missing step in your resource box involves listing out the all the steps in the content of your article and put the last final step, in your [tag-tec]resource box[/tag-tec].

This is similar to something I wrote in my book Article Marketing Strategies where I mention putting part 2 of your article in your resource box.

However, writing a part 2 of your article will take a lot more time as you basically need to write another article. If you put the missing step in your resource box, all you need to do is to write that final step in your email/webpage etc… and have them opt in to read it and also giving them a free ebook as a gift for doing so.

So putting this into practice, I would write something like “7 steps to writing an effective email course to bring you traffic”. I would only list 6 steps in the article. As the conclusion, I would write “the final step you must do with your email course is to make it viral to get even more subscribers.”

Now in your resource box, you can put “Sign up at the article marketing newsletter to read the final step 7 on how to make your email course viral”.

If the content of your article is good, your readers cannot resist signing up to read the final step.

Dan Thies has revised his book SEO Fast Start in May 2008. If you don’t know who Dan Thies is, let me just say that he’s a keyword Guru and a SEO expert.

Dan explains the steps clearly on how to do SEO for websites. The methods are strictly white hat and will last for many years to come. In fact, Dan mentions that not a great deal has changed if you have read his ebook a few years back.

If you carried out what he recommended back then, you’ll still be doing very well today. That’s because it’s whitehat techniques. Things that you should be doing NOW.

To download a copy of SEO Fast Start free of charge (actually I don’t know why Dan is giving this ebook away), visit SEO ebook

Another one of Dan’s services which was recommended to me by Brad Fallon (Stompernet fame), is SEO Research Labs.

If you want your keyword research done, just use one of Dan’s services which cost around $99 for an in-depth keyword analysis of your site. Brad says that the keyword research is top notch and it saves a lot of time doing it himself.

This is coming from Brad Fallon, a SEO expert as well.

So if you don’t Dan Thies, you’ve just read about him now. Go and read his stuff. You’ll learn a lot.

An internet marketing chat is always irresistible especially when you’ve sat in your office 5 hours straight churning out content.

Well I left work early yesterday and had an interesting chat with this techie guy. He’s technical in the sense that he knows how to program websites, using html, DreamWeaver, PHP etc… He also makes quite a bit with Adsense and advertising on his sites.

It’s always good to speak with someone who knows [tag-tec]internet marketing[/tag-tec] and can share ideas. This casual talk however, made me raise my eyebrows twice.

I won’t go too deep into the conversation but here are the main points:

1. I’m looking for [tag-tec]long tail keywords[/tag-tec] to write articles and blog posts on. My friend disagrees and goes for the main keywords. For example, if he was in the internet marketing niche, he would choose the keyword “make money online”. For him, nothing else matters.

This coming from an internet marketer with the same experience as me was a surprise. He tends to do [tag-tec]keyword research[/tag-tec] by looking for the keywords that has the most search results.

Maybe he’s right and it will work for him in the long run. But what is he going to do during this time while he’s trying to increase his ranks.

2. Now this is the killer. My internet marketing friend, doesn’t know how to set up a WordPress blog. We were talking about blogs and all the reasons why we shouldn’t get a freebie account like Blogger.

Then he said that he needs to outsource to someone to create this blog. I was blown away. I’ve set up so many blogs myself that it seems general knowledge that nearly everyone should know. Especially a seasoned internet marketer and techie.

My conclusion with this talk?

Don’t ever, ever assume that what you know is common knowledge. I was so shocked that my internet marketer friend didn’t know how to set up a blog. I could have charged him for my services

Also don’t expect everyone to follow what the norm is. With regards to keyword research, my friend wants to do it the hard way. He just doesn’t see the value in long tail keywords. Which is why if he reads enough newbie information products, he may change his mind.

Therefore don’t worry about topics that you think are over saturated in the market. There are many people who are newbies or who have just simply skipped the information during the past few years. They’re just waiting for the book that can explain it in an interesting manner and give them the ah-ha moment.

Overall, there are millions of opportunities out there. There are thousands of people who are new every day, searching on how to make money online. Your knowledge is priceless. You need to sell it.

Online marketing requires a lot of work. We can spend all day writing articles, tuning our Adwords, social bookmarking, updating Squidoo lens, blogging, commenting on other blogs.

So does it make sense to continue in this sort of fashion? You’ll be exhausted at the end of every day and later on, you will burn yourself out.

One of the things I tend to do is blog and write articles daily. You cannot write excellent content every day and I’m sure you’ll agree with me on that.

What I tend to do is, write at least one masterpiece for the week. Only one.

For other days, I tend to comment on other people’s blogs or create short posts. Nothing major but enough to keep content churning out.

Then for my best content I will market it. Because I know it will provide value for anyone who reads it. This is why I spend about 2-3 days writing this masterpiece. About 15 mins each day working on it.

Once your masterpiece is done, you should go through your list of marketing tasks. These include:

- [tag-tec]Social bookmarking[/tag-tec] it

- submitting the content to various websites

- commenting on other [tag-tec]blogs[/tag-tec]

- notify your list

- blog about it

- update your [tag-tec]squidoo lens[/tag-tec] on it

- etc…

That is what you should do every week with just one piece of content. This will free up your time instead of marketing non-stop and really not having a goal of what to do. With your masterpiece, you should also have a goal of what it should achieve.

For me, it is to have people sign up for my newsletter and download my ebook Article Marketing Strategies. So make sure your masterpiece achieves whatever you want ie. building a list, advertising an affiliate program, etc..

Here is an example of one of my masterpieces which I’ve spent quite a lot of time on and marketed the hell out of it.

How To Make Money Online With Blogs

Needless to say, traffic was good for that particular post.

Organizing your internet marketing list is one of the main tasks you should plan ahead in your online business. Speaking to other [tag-tec]internet marketers[/tag-tec] during my trip to Bali, the people I asked all confirmed they organized their lists and that it has helped them tremendously in understanding their business.

So why organize them? So that you know what your conversion rate actually is. For example, if people have bought from you before, then they are more likely to buy from you again. They are your buyers.

For freebies, they tend to just download and seek new content. They are great for sending traffic to a site but the conversion rate on buying is not high. You need to spend more time to convert them to buyers.

When you have split your lists into these 2 types of people, you will know more clearly if the offer you are promoting is attractive or not.

Apart from these 2 type of lists, you should also split the lists into topics. For example, people who have subscribed to your newsletter due to the Giveaway event, people who are interested in [tag-tec]article marketing[/tag-tec], people who are interested in [tag-tec]web traffic[/tag-tec] etc…

When you know which of your subscribers are interested in what topic, then you can sell to them more easily.

One of the things I do with my list, is organize them into levels of expertise – Beginners, intermediate and experts. So if I promoted an affiliate product for beginners, I’ll send them only to the beginners list – maybe the intermediate list as well depending on the product.

Now just imagine if you hadn’t organized your list. Your unsubscribe rate for your intermediate and expert subscribers will be pretty high because you are telling them stuff that they’re not interested in.

And all this takes is just simply naming your lists to the different forms when they subscribe or buy using aweber, the recommended autoresponder.

I’m back from Bali. Internet was nearly non-existent and I didn’t feel like working so sorry for the lack of posts these 5 days.

It was a hell of an internet marketing event. I got to meet lots of people who I’ve never met or took notice of before and also some who are already quite established such as Kevin Riley. Some of the names were familiar if you’re a regular reader of the Warrior Forum.

I went alone to Bali by myself and was really looking forward to meeting all these geeks. Surprisingly, they were all very friendly and not the boring geeks I expected. They drank, smoke, had laughs and did nutty stuff.

Here’s a quick preview of what happened:

Day 1: Arrived at night and met the whole group. There were about 20 internet marketers there. Kevin Riley took us to a place on the beach and we made some self introductions and told everyone what we wanted out of the meeting and potential for JVs.

Day 2: Met everyone at in the morning after breakfast. Went shopping and eating together. There was a guy there called Dee Ferdinand. He was an Indonesian who does  mini site graphics for Kevin Riley and others. He was the sort of tour guide for the group. Really helpful and took care of everyone.

At night we went to see the SlingShot. It was an entertainment ride where you were locked up in a metal ball and got catapulted in the air and then bounced about in the air a few times. It was my first time on the ride as well. An amazing experience. Only 4 of us went on the ride. The rest watched and took photos and videos.

Day 3: WaterSports Day! A lot of the group went to the beach to play watersports. Parasailing,  banana boat, scuba diving, fly fishing…excellent day. In the evening, we went for a 1 hour massage. I had a Thai massage. Nothing special and the place wasn’t very relaxing.

Then Dee came along and told us that there was a better massage parlour that had a 90 min “Swedish and Thai massage” in clean, professional place. The price was cheaper as well. I think we got ripped off in the first massage parlour then.

Anyway, the five of us went there to have another massage. It was brilliant. I was so relaxed and the service was really good. There was a point where the massage girls lifted us up in the air with their knees. One of the internet marketers there was Frank Bauer who’s a big bloke. How the hell the little girl managed to lift him up?

Day 4: Went water-rafting with 5 other people. It was my first time and we had lots of fun. After lunch we went shopping. Later on we met with the whole group and had dinner.

After dinner we went to play pool in the bar from 9pm – 2am. Totally nuts. I forgot how many games we played and I was totally out of it at the end. Couldn’t remember how much I drank. Hmm….hope I didn’t do anything embarrassing.

Day 5: Had breakfast and left for Hong Kong. Arrived home at11:30pm.

That was a quick run down of what happened. For a lot of the events, the group didn’t go together. Some went clubbing, some went shopping etc… Overall it was just a great unforgettable  experience.

During my 4 days there, I hardly talked about business. Just enjoying myself. Shocking?

Actually these sort of trips are the best for internet marketing and potential joint ventures. People get to know you and so will read your emails. If you have ideas you can share it with other people.

There is no way you can get to know someone as well as this in an internet marketing seminar. Not sure if  there will be another one next year but if so, I would highly recommend you to go. You get to have fun and actually make friends with other internet marketers. A totally different experience compared to emails and Skype calls.

I’m writing this from Singapore Terminal 2. Will be arriving in Bali tonight at around 7pm ish. Meeting several internet marketers there from the Warrior Forum.

Should be a good 4 days. It’ll bve great to get to know everyone.

The internet should be alright in Bali. If not, then expect the next update to this blog on June 9th. That’s when I get back to Hong Kong.

I’ll update you with what’s exciting in Bali. However, if gets too confidential/adultish, or if some of them pays me not to talk about it (then I’ll skip it).

In the mean time – keep internet marketing

Article Marketing will go a long way for you if you have copywriting skills to create an article title. Considering the article title is the most important part of an article, sometimes people only outsource article titles to copywriters.

Here’s a checklist to help you write an incredible article title so you won’t have to go to that extent with your article marketing.

An Incredible Article Title Consists Of:

1. Your main keyword. We are talking about article titles here, so we need to think about [tag-tec]Search Engine Optimization[/tag-tec] – SEO. Keywords that are in the article title will rank better in the search engines. Even better if the keyword appears at the beginning of an article title.

Eg. <Keyword Title> – Benefits of <Keyword Title>

However, you need to make sure that you can fit the keyword in the title without it sounding strange or out of place. After all, your article title will be read by a human being.

2. Curiosity. If someone is searching for information and your title seems to offer it then they will be curious to open it. The whole point of the article is to make someone curious enough to click on it to read the content.

All of us are curious so putting mysterious benefits will work wonders.
Eg. 10 secret tactics you won’t know about article marketing

3. Specific. Your article needs to be specific so that it sounds believable and full of facts. For example, “How to get 34% increase in sales in less than 56 hours.” Can’t get more specific than that.

4. Swiping Other Emails. These are phrases that you pick up from junk mail and other email promotions. Start adding them to your arsenal of [tag-tec]article marketing[/tag-tec] titles.

Some of the ones I use are:
- How do you…
- The Truth About…
- Secrets of…

5. One clear benefit. Your potential readers are all looking for information that will solve their problems. If your article shows the benefit they’ll receive or what problem you’ll help them solve, then they’ll want to read it.

6. Not too much of a hard sell. Putting words such as the “best membership you can join” will not get you clicks. First of all, it’s obvious you are selling something. Second of all, it sounds too much like a typical salesman pushing hard for a sale – a character not many people like.

No one likes to be sold and people hate hype. So be careful.

7. Boring. You have to make your title interesting. Any signs of boredom or a typical science book sort of title will kill your clicks. So read your title aloud and see if you can make it more interesting.

At the end of the day you are trying to get someone to click on your article title. Look at the article title yourself, and ask yourself if it achieves that. Following the checklist above, you should be able to write very good article titles for your article marketing.

However, note that article marketing contains a lot of techniques that you need to know to make your campaign successful. Writing an effective article title is just one of them. You need to study more on article marketing as it is one of the most effective ways to market online.

To know more about article marketing, you can subscribe to the newsletter and download a copy of Article Marketing Strategies – a complete guide on all there is to know on article marketing.

Do you make money online or spend money online? Ask yourself that question. Take a note of your spending habits and the progress of your online business. For me, I took down notes on what I spent on and my progress with my online business. The findings blew me away and changed how I looked at things.

During the past few years, I have spend thousands on information products teaching me how to [tag-tec]make money online[/tag-tec]. Everything from generating traffic, adsense, affiliate programs, article marketing, PPC etc…

I realised that it became a habit. Looking at my online business, I found that I didn’t make much progress. None at all.

All I did was buy products which pleased me. I was looking for something that I could follow and then the income would pour in. I just loved to spend money online searching for my dream.

So what changed things around for me?

I started to concentrate on my [tag-tec]online business[/tag-tec] more and more. I realized that internet marketing was a skill I needed to know. It was a skill that brings in traffic and helps me market my business. But I didn’t have a business.

So what happened was, I started to concentrate on my business. Making sure the lead product was being created and gave excellent value, made sure the backend sales were offered and followed up correctly with my autoresponders etc…

THEN…I started to concentrate on [tag-tec]internet marketing[/tag-tec] which was generating traffic and marketing my products.

That was a very good lesson for me.

So if this sounds like you, then turn a new leaf today. Understand what business are you in now. Make sure your business is working until you spend money on information products that generate traffic.

Make money online and not spend money online.

Make money online is a cruel industry. It’s so easy to get into and build your online business and hope to make money online. But after spending thousands of dollars on information, you still fail to make money online. What’s the problem?

First of all, ask yourself “Who do you buy from currently?”

Have a look at the information products you have bought, the membership site you’ve joined, the internet marketers’ information you regularly read and who’s advice you trust the most.

Once you have this list, you’ll find that the reasons these internet marketers make money online (well you bought from them right?) are because:

- You like reading their free stuff which is on the internet for everyone to study

- You’ve heard about their good reputation from forums and how people think they’re an authority and kick butt

- You found them ranked high search engines such as Google and will naturally think they’re an authority on your niche. Therefore you read their stuff and trust them.

- They have a great sales pages for their products. You read it and it seems to solve a lot of your problems and unknowns. Damn, you need to buy their product badly.

- Some other people you trust such as ezine owners, internet marketers, authority figures recommend their stuff. Well it must be good then and you’ll naturally start to notice the person and the products they produce. They’re definitely qualified to help you [tag-tec]make money online[/tag-tec]

- They’ve created a product that seems to solve your most pressing problems. The product is a system which you can follow easily and see the benefits in no time. How can you afford not to buy it?

OK…read the above list again and again. Now go and take action to make yourself become that trusted person and make money online. Not too difficult if you break things down.